Aug 22, 2022
1 CHRONICLES 1:
Jewish and Christian traditions hold that
Jeremiah was the author of 1&2 Kings, which were originally one
book. And that Ezra, the priest, wrote 1&2 Chronicles, which
are also one book in Hebrew. It may be that Ezra wrote these books
after his return to Jerusalem. The Greek Septuagint names this book
Paraleipomena, which means ‘things left over’. This book does
supplement things not found in other books. Compared to the books
of Samuel and Kings, Chronicles focuses more on the spiritual
misdeeds of the kings and the importance of worshiping the Lord
properly through the ministry of the priests and the Temple. This
fits well with Ezra being the author. So we turn from the Prophets
and return to the books of history.
PROVERBS 13b:
Here
is a favorite verse from today’s reading:
Pro. 13:16 NLT Wise people think before they
act;
fools don’t—and even
brag about their foolishness.
EPHESIANS 3:
At
the first of chapter 1, Paul mentioned God’s “secret plan he had
already decided to complete by means of Christ. This plan … was to
bring Everything together with Christ as the head.” At the end of
chapter 2, we learned that specifically, through our union with
Christ, all believers are made one— no matter if they are Jews or
non-Jews. Paul restates God’s secret plan in a more concise and
clear way in today’s chapter as he moves to this letter’s second
major prayer.
There are two instances of ‘joined/in union with Christ’ in this chapter.
GNT Translation notes:
Eph. 3:12 In union with Christ and through our [believing//faith] in him we have the boldness to go into God's presence with all confidence.
17 and I pray that Christ will
make his home in your hearts through [your believing//faith]. I
pray that you may have your roots and foundation in
love,